CBC will no longer broadcast NHL hockey games after it and national rights-holder Rogers Sportsnet were unable to come to agreement on a new sublicensing deal that would have allowed the public broadcaster to air games on its Saturday program Hockey Night in Canada.
The CBC, which began televising NHL games in 1952, had operated under that agreement since Rogers Sportsnet acquired the league’s Canadian rights in 2013 for $5.2 billion. Rogers Sportsnet renewed those rights with a 12-year, $11.2-billion deal to begin in October. The CBC previously aired national games on Saturdays, along with all four playoff rounds each year.
The CBC and Rogers Sportsnet announced the change in a joint statement Tuesday.
“After a successful 12-year partnership, Sportsnet and CBC today announced the public broadcaster will no longer carry NHL broadcasts after the current season as it moves forward with a new sports programming strategy following the unprecedented success of the Milano/Cortina Olympic Games,” the statement said.
“Watching hockey on Saturday night is a time-honoured tradition for Canadians, and Sportsnet is privileged to continue delivering that tradition. This has been a terrific partnership, and both parties look forward to continued opportunities to collaborate in the future.”
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While the CBC still holds the Hockey Night in Canada trademark and could incorporate the brand into future coverage, it’s the first time the program won’t be available to Canadian viewers via the public broadcaster.
“I can’t imagine it,” said Michael McKinley, author of Hockey Night in Canada: 60 Seasons.
“I mean, I can imagine it. I don’t want to imagine it.”
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“It’s definitely a bit of an end of an era,” CBC Sports executive director Chris Wilson said in a phone interview. “But we’re choosing to look at it more as an opportunity as opposed to a loss.”
“But [we] fully understand that it’s going to take an opportunity away from some Canadians to see it on CBC. But that’s unfortunately where we landed, and we’re excited for the next chapter.”
Hockey Night in Canada was a Saturday night mainstay for generations of hockey fans.
“The CBC brand was so dynamic and so finely created and presented that it defined a way of [the] telling of the sports story,” McKinley said in a recent interview.
Broadcasters like Dick Irvin, Bob Cole, Ron MacLean, Don Cherry, Dave Hodge and Foster Hewitt — to name a few — helped provide the soundtrack that Canadians would cherish.
Traditional baby blue blazers — complete with a puck and stick HNIC logo on the jacket pocket — were as familiar as the announcers’ voices.
“The CBC’s interest in sports has basically been in amateur sports for quite a while, and other professional sports are on sports channels [like] Sportsnet or TSN,” Hodge said in a phone interview.
“They all look the same. Nobody wears any baby blue jackets with Hockey Night in Canada crests to identify it as a Saturday night game. I think that this was coming. It was inevitable.”
Things began to change when Rogers first secured a 12-year, $5.2-billion rights deal with the league in 2013, with many games available on the Sportsnet broadcast platform.
The telecom giant and the CBC agreed on a sublicensing deal for English-language broadcasts of HNIC, and a separate French-language deal was made with TVA.
“I think that as the national broadcaster, as the entity that is responsible for telling Canadian stories to Canada, hockey is an essential Canadian story,” McKinley said. “I think it was part of [the CBC’s] mandate to do it. They got it right for a long time.”
Under the setup, Sportsnet produced the games, retained editorial control and managed the advertising.
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The CBC’s inclusion helped broaden the reach across the country. It also kept the tradition intact and allowed the broadcaster to promote some of its own programming.
“It was the original appointment television for Canada every Saturday night,” said James Nadler, chair of the radio and television arts media program at Toronto Metropolitan University.
The first sublicensing deal, a four-year agreement that started with the 2014-15 season, was followed by a one-year extension.
When a seven-year sublicensing deal was finalized ahead of the 2019-20 campaign, Rogers said it ensured “that Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts continue to reach the maximum number of Canadians every Saturday night on CBC, Sportsnet and City.”
Rogers also said that HNIC “consistently ranked among the Top 5 programs, reaching on average 7.5 million Canadians each week.”
“Saturday night NHL hockey is woven into the fabric of Canada and our partners at Sportsnet will continue this great tradition, as they have for the last 12 years,” NHL chief communications officer Jon Weinstein said in an email.
In place of Hockey Night in Canada, CBC will launch a new Saturday night prime time show on CBC and streaming on CBC Gem, featuring Canadian athletes competing at home and at the biggest events around the world.
“As the proud home of Team Canada, we’re already investing in the L.A. Games in 2028 and setting a course for the French Alps in 2030,” said Doug Smith, executive vice-president, CBC.
“At the same time, our commitment doesn’t pause following the closing ceremony; we will be there between the Games — in every community, every arena, every early morning practice and every late night training session.”
In addition, Radio-Canada, the broadcaster’s French-language service, will launch Rendez-vous Podium, a weekly show on ICI TÉLÉ and ICI TOU.TV on Sunday afternoons.
